Hilton Hawaiian Village is in the early stages of the permitting process for a new 36-floor Ala Moana Boulevard Tower that will add approximately 515 rooms to what is already Waikiki’s largest resort property and has the most rooms of any Hilton in the world.
The tower, which is adjacent to the Grand Waikikian Tower and near the Kalia Tower, is planned for a half-acre parcel currently occupied by a rental car business, two-story retail buildings and the shuttered Kobe Japanese Steakhouse restaurant.
The new 350-foot tower would have a main porte-cochere entry off Ala Moana Boulevard, an open lobby, ground-floor retail, food and beverage offerings, pool, fitness center and walkways linking it to surrounding towers. Development costs have not been disclosed, but are expected to be provided in the project’s supplemental environmental impact statement, or SEIS.
Park Hotels & Resorts, a Virginia-based real estate investment trust that owns Hilton Hawaiian Village, said that a draft SEIS is being reviewed by the city’s Department of Planning and Permitting and will be published for public comment late this month or in early December.
Next year, Park Hotels & Resorts plans to seek approval for a special management area use permit, Waikiki Special District permit and a planned development modification of a circa 2010 resort master plan, which focused on adding two new timeshare towers. So far, only one is completed: The $420 million 418-unit Grand Islander by Hilton Grand Vacations opened in 2017.
This master plan now proposes an amendment to allow development of AMB Tower, which could begin construction in late 2024 or 2025, and is expected to be completed in approximately 30 months.The new AMB Tower would be in addition to and not in lieu of another 250-unit timeshare tower, which is already included in the master plan.
Public input will be considered at each of the regulatory steps.
Expanding Hilton Hawaiian Village by a half-acre represents a relatively small but significant addition to the beachfront resort, which was established in 1955 by industrialist Henry Kaiser. If approved, the addition would increase the number of hotel and timeshare units by about 13% — to 4,463 from 3,948 — on the Hilton property where eight towers exist today.
According to property records, an affiliate of Park Hotels bought the biggest of three lots making up the expansion site, one with the retail buildings, in 2018 for $5.2 million. The rental car lot and former Kobe restaurant building are owned by an affiliate of local convenience store chain ABC Stores, which has a store on the parcel owned by Park Hotels and would open a bigger ABC store on the ground floor of the planned new tower, according to the plan.
Hilton’s newest project has fans, especially from Waikiki’s business interests.
Rick Egged, Waikiki Improvement Association president, said in a statement, “This project will help achieve a longstanding community aim to enhance the Ewa gateway to Waikiki by replacing aging buildings currently on site with a state-of-the-art tower that provides a more visually appealing and appropriate welcome for locals and visitors alike.”
Still, a presentation to the Waikiki Neighborhood Board on Tuesday was met with community pushback.
Most of the critics did not want to add to the neighborhood’s density. Other complaints included concerns about the possibility of increased traffic congestion and insufficient parking. Also, some nearby condominium owners feared that the development would block their views. Another concern focused on whether developers had taken appropriate steps to protect against sea-level rise and flooding.
Realtor Margaret Murchie said, “I am against the construction on an already cramped overbuilt space with buildings that disrupt traffic, darken streets, affect airflow and views. With the recent water main break in front of the nearby Wailana, I am convinced that the utility infrastructure cannot support another large building.”
Jonathan Fuisz, senior vice president of investments, Park Hotels & Resorts, said in a statement that the new tower and its amenities will help keep visitors at the resort, thereby improving traffic.
“Our plans for a new hotel tower will add needed capacity in the visitor area of Waikiki, helping to redirect visitors back to hotels like Hilton Hawaiian Village, where we have been hosting guests and employing local residents for more than 65 years,” Fuisz said.
Norman Hong, chairman at G70 and AMB Tower’s lead architect, said in a statement, “In line with city and state regulations, the project is being planned and designed with mitigation strategies to address water drainage and will upgrade the existing infrastructure at the project site.”
Waikiki Neighborhood Board member Kathryn Henski, who has been through eight hurricanes, said she thinks that Hilton underestimated their projections on sea-level rise. “I will add you to my prayers tonight,” Henski told Hong when he said he was comfortable with project estimates, which put the tower’s ground level at 7.5 feet above the mean sea level.
Waikiki Neighborhood Board Chair Bob Finley said the board has not taken an official position on the project.
“As an individual, I personally have no concerns. I think no matter what we say or do it’s going to happen,” he said. “They are not asking for any variances. They are not exceeding height or setbacks. Parking is no longer required. I suspect when it hits permitting it will slide right through.”
Finley said the public will have additional opportunities to review the project, and that he expects that Hilton and Park Hotels & Resorts will return to the board at least two more times.
He said he was pleased that the Hilton and Park Hotels & Resorts are incorporating technologies to promote sustainability and resilience, including a grey water system recommended by the Waikiki Neighborhood Board that would recapture water from bathtubs, showers and laundry for re-use purposes.
Finley said in his view, the tower is needed as Waikiki could be short visitor units in the wake of city enforcement of Ordinance 22-7 (Bill 41), which aims to ban operation of vacation rental units operating illegally in the district.
“We haven’t even got our Japanese visitors back and the planes are full,” Finley said. “We are the resort area on Oahu. I’d like to see our visitors spend their money here and support our economy.”
Jerry Gibson, president of the Hawaii Hotel Alliance, said in a statement, “By generating additional hotel capacity in Waikiki, the beating heart of Hawaii’s hospitality industry, we can redirect visitors to districts designed to accommodate them and alleviate the impact of illegal vacation rentals on residential communities that were not built to sustain them.”
Modifications to the planned development resort permit will require the project to provide community benefits.
Debi Bishop, Hilton Hawaiian Village managing director, said in a statement that besides adding jobs, “Hilton Hawaiian Village and Park Hotels & Resorts are very excited about two community benefits we are proposing that will be associated with the AMB Tower project uplifting local art and artisans. Guests and community members will be able to enjoy significant public art installations by local artists and a new monthly cultural festival and marketplace showcasing local craftsmen and musicians.”
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Star-Advertiser reporter Andrew Gomes contributed to this report.
HILTON HAWAIIAN VILLAGE EXPANSION
Existing
>> 22 acres
>> 8 towers
>> 3,948 hotel and timeshare units
Planned addition
>> 0.5 acre
>> 1 hotel tower
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said developers of the Hilton Hawaiian Village AMB Tower project do not have to provide community givebacks. The project will require community benefits to modify the planned development resort permit.
